Many protocols, such as a Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), are employed to determine appropriate routes for network traffic. In determining the appropriate routes, the protocols may block certain links in an attempt to prevent looping of packets, which may be referred to as a network storm. These protocols may take seconds to converge, which may be acceptable during network startup. However, during operation, when an event occurs that changes the topology of a network, such as a link failure, the protocol must re-converge and delays of this magnitude can be seriously disruptive due to packet loss during the reconvergence time. For example, applications with strict Quality of Service (QoS) constraints, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), may fail. For example, a VoIP call could be dropped.